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So, as yet we don’t have a punchy theme name. But,we have a large and growing group of amazing nail polish addicts who live in New Zealand, and meet up on our Facebook page to brag, swap, chat and become totally enabled in our polish addiction. I mean, seriously, thanks to these wonderful people my nail polish collection has grown exponentially. I do mean thanks, they are all wonderful and I love my stash 😀 (polish stash, people. We’re talking about nail polish here).

So, we were kicking around ideas on doing a series of weekly nail polish posts, with a different theme every week. I am very keen for this to be fun, and not about nail art in specific, more about the love of nail polish. Doing these aren’t compulsory, but if anyone is keen they can do whatever works for them, and sending in blog links or just photos.

So, for the first ever PANZ group theme is: Favourite Colour!

And, right off the bat, I’m going to cheat. Because, yeah, I didn’t have time to prepare anything! And also, it’s legit – I really CAN’T choose a favourite colour, and I want these themes to be able to be interpreted really loosely 😀 So here, from this tutorial here, is my first attempt at butterfly nail art!

I decided to make each nail have a different colour, and all of these are L.A Colors Color Craze polishes (a gift from my sister-in-law, Jeannie, THANK YOU!). They don’t have names on the bottles, but having done some research I *think* they are these polishes, here – although my blue looks quite a bit darker than hers.

before the top coat was added 🙂

I used two coats of each of these colours, and the green and pink DEFINITELY needed at least one more extra coat for opacity – luckily the black bits hide the nail line quite nicely 😀

I then added a spectraflair top coat (one I made, but any one will do) to give them all an equal amount of shimmer, and then followed the tutorial, adding the black polish (Black nail art pen and China Glaze Liquid Leather), and the silver dots (silver nail art pen), then finished off with Misa BREAKneck polish.

I even did my right hand! That was tricky. Actually, I did all this once, mangled it completely because brush was too big and everything just went wrong, so this here is my second attempt. And STILL I won’t show you my right hand 😀

I like them though, it’s a cool way to wear skittles!

And yes, I can’t choose a favourite colour. At gunpoint, it’d be blue. When it comes to polish though, I have pretty equal amounts of purple, blue, green and pink. And more glitter than anything else 😀

I bought this All That Glitters polish from one of the lovely ladies from our Nail Polish Addicts group – and I can’t remember who! *wails*. If you are reading this, and it was you, let me know so I can credit your awesomeness, ok? 😀 I took one look at it in the bottle, and decided to layer it – firstly over another new to me polish- this one from my Sister V – this is L.A. Colors Metallic Purple.

It is metallic, and it is purple. A lilac kind of purple.

Very pretty, and the two coats shown here covered very nicely. Blingy in the sunlight like foils are, I do enjoy that!

And then… with one thin coat of Plum and Plummer.

Ewwwww.

Sorry, I know this is not the polishes fault, it’s the combo and the fact I cannot apply an even coat, but this did NOTHING for me. SO, added another coat of Plum & Plummer, to try and even out the patchiness, but that didn’t help a lot.

two coats of Plum & Plummer

Probably doesn’t help that I don’t like pink THAT much. No top coat, and plenty of glitter on my cuticles. ARGH! WHERE HAVE MY SKILLZ GONE!

2 coats Plum & Plummer

So, ok, rip it off quickly and put Plum and Plummer over one coat of Kleancolor Black, plus China Glaze Fast Forward.

This did look much better, even with black cuticles caused by afore-lamented lack of skillz.

One thing that annoyed me about Plum & Plummer is the strange plum glitters. I’m guessing they are what gave the polish it’s name, but they are LUMPY! Like little pretty rocks. Which is a shame because I do like their colour, it’s quite unique I think.

It has been warm this summer. I am NOT complaining, because last year we didn’t have a summer at all. Seriously. There was no sun, it rained and was overcast and cold the whole time. So, I’m not complaining about the sweating and the grimy sticky feeling and the dust, because I am LOVING swimming in the river and getting things done. And to celebrate summer, or at least a minimal complaint policy, here is my verrrraah warm manicure.

I started with two coats of L.A Colors Color Craze in Shock, which gorgeous Sister V gave me in a recent polish swap. I didn’t know if it was a dark yellow or a light orange, but I’m going with light, warm, orange.

in the shade…

This was slightly streaky, but not too bad – and a little sheer. I would definitely use three coats if I was using it on it’s own!

Then, because I could NOT cope with that colour on my yellow toned skin…

I added two coats of Vivid Lacquer Pumpkin Hangover – and yay, the yellow matte glitters were lighter than Shock, so all glitters (including the red and white matte and tiny red glittery ones) were visible. I hate ‘losing’ glitter to the base colour. I used China Glaze Fast Forward top coat on this, and it was nice and smooth.

This … looked, to me, like sunspots on the sun.

For a ‘autumn / halloween’ polish, Pumpkin Hangover is very versatile! I like this combo a lot. 🙂

The second of four polishes sent for review, this is Ozotic Scatter 912 – a very pretty purple/gold shifting duochrome with irregular and highly sparkly holographic particles ‘scattered’ throughout.

Did you know, I thought this would be a layering polish? It’s not. This is two coats on it’s own, no top coat.

Formula on this was perfect, and dry time was on the fast side of average.

The colour shift is there, but not in-your-face, just a nice quiet change when you move your hands. The holographic particles are VERY blingy, but lie flat and are very smooth, too.

my fingers are underwater here, to see if the duochrome is more apparent. It isn’t! 😀

I was surprised by how dense this polish was! I did layer it, to see if it would make a difference. From right to left (index to pinky), I used Kleancolor Black, Boe Beauty Purple Knights, L.A. Colors Cranberry Red, and Kleancolor White.

Could you tell there were different colours underneath?

Me, I can see that my little fingernail is slightly paler in tone – that was the one with the white base. Other then that, I can’t tell! Really, the only reason for layering this would be to save the polish or for doing a tape manicure or similar.

So, back to the original! Here it is again, two lovely coats of 912, and then I added one thin dabbed layer of Darling Diva Polish Chrome Job.

I enjoyed the extra glitz, and the fact that you still get all the holographic sparks and colour shift of 912. Win!

This was topped with a thick layer of Misa BREAKneck, though it needed Glitter Food or similar, as some of the large black hexes in Chrome Job have a curl to them, and I didn’t flick one over the right way and it’s poked at me all day.

Still.. I like this. A lot.

piCture pOlish and Ozotic polishes can be bought from piCture pOlish online, or for us Kiwi’s, try Gracie Lou – and check them both out on Facebook too (piCture pOlish , Gracie Lou): they have specials, swatches, and information there that can’t be found anywhere else.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day! Oh, and if you are Facebook stalking, come say hello on my page – button is on the left hand side there!

This was my mornings fun swatch mani! I had a few Kleancolors and wanted to get them done at once, so what better way than to combine them, right?

Well, this is Kleancolor Boogie Nights – two coats, no top coat. This name confuses me: most Kleancolors are fairly unimaginative unless they’re some strange glitter, so for this I’d have expected ‘Shimmery Orange” or something. But hey 😀 It’s GORGEOUS. Super easy to apply, quick drying, flattering. An orange I love? YES!

Some photos

Some more photos

Son number 2 getting in on the hand photography action 😀

Then, I added Kleancolor Starry Meteor to one side, on the diagonal bias. I just used the brush for this, but it’s so sheer I could get away with it.

Starry Meteor is green in the bottle, but almost sheer on: miniscule green glitters, greenish/blue little glitter and long silver bars.

in the shade…

Over the orange it was barely noticable, just those glitters. Cool, means I can use it over EVERYTHING! SCORE!

sunlight 🙂

Then I used Kleancolor Blind Date, a clear base with multi coloured glittery stars, some of which are holo.

DON’T, under any circumstances other than the most dire, use this directly. You’ll have 10 inch nails – thick, not long – and they’ll never dry, and all nails will have 1 star on it. Sad, but true.

What I did was brush the polish onto some plastic (paper would also work) and use a dotting tool to transfer each star to where I wanted it. Sounds like too much work? Not compared to waiting 7 years for a polish to try, and still not having stars upon thars 😀

shade 🙂

And finally, I added a stripe from my L.A Colors Art Deco nail art polish, which is silver. This is sort of inspired by sister V, who always puts nail art stripes on any nail she’s unsure about. It works! It breaks up the expanse of colour. I was using it to pull it together, but it still worked I think. And a coat of Kleancolor Fast Dry.

I did like this, quite a lot. But…it reminded me a LOT of the overalls I wore when I was part of the PN Civil Defense Rescue team. I loved that team, but this mani made me laugh whenever I saw it. I am sure there are more city councils around the planet that use orange and silver overalls – could be a great matching look for them!

This is one coat of L.A. Colors Cranberry Red, striped with L. A. Colors Art Deco silver – a much more manageble brush on this, but I find the polish tends to run down onto the brush and flood it a bit. The lack of symmertry is mostly user error, and I’m fine with that – I quite like the ‘non-stilted’ look heh heh heh.

Welcome to Day 7 of the 31 Day Nail Polish Challenge: Black and White Nails 🙂

I used alternating colours – the black is BYS Black Satin and the white is a Japanese polish with the brand name ‘e’ – two coats of each. I think I liked this mani best with the little white circles on the black, and the white plain. The circles are white, but they are also iridescent – and flick lilac and blue as well.

Then I decided to stripe the white polish with a black nail art pen -L.A Colors Art Deco, no name remains but it’s black with silver flecks and has the longest floppiest brush in the history of brushes, and the thickest polish. Gah. Still, here are my tiger stripes!

I didn’t mind the effect, but still preferred it without the stripes. Me and animal print: we’re not the best of friends. 🙂

Chickens and nail polish: two of my favourite things. (alongside my family, and jewellery, and running down mountains. I have lots of favourite things:D). So, I thought – why not combine them? I’m fortunate enough to have quite a variety of chickens, so I’ll use them as inspiration for some nail art, and also give a bit of information on the chook.

Sussex information: “Bred to be a dual purpose bird, it is one of the most productive breeds we have today. The hen will lay around 260 large eggs that are cream to light brown in colour. The Sussex is one of the oldest breeds that are still in existence today. The Sussex chicken is an alert but docile breed that can adapt to any surrounding easily. They are good foragers. Whilst they are quite happy to be free range, they will also be fine if kept in a confined space. They can occasionally but not very often go broody.” Information from this great website here.

Jane, foraging around with Beetle (the black Orpington pullet in the foreground)

I am lucky enough to have four Light Sussex hens, and because they remind me of ladies wearing old fashioned English Lawn dresses, I’ve given them good ashioned names… Jane, Eliza, Virginia and Mary. They are good, regular layers (having a break over winter, but Eliza gives me an egg 5 days a week). Docile? Not so much, they’re first at the door for food and are right at the top of the pecking order. Also, all four of them went madly broody last summer, so I’d not be saying ‘possibly may go broody’ to people, more ‘WILL go broody and bite your hands if you try and move them’. None of them managed to successfully hatch their eggs though, maybe they will this year.

And my nails?

This was three coats of E 44 – white: a Japanese polish, streaky but pretty nice in three coats. I used the dotting tool to make the combs, with L.A.Colors Cranberry Red. Neck feathers are a light gradient of Cover Band Sticks ‘n’ Stones with black teardrop nail jewels; the beaks are gold teardrop nail jewels, and the eyes are orange nail jewels. I used a top coat of Kleancolor Fast Dry.

My favourite one!

I really enjoyed doing these. I wasn’t expecting to paint chickens heads on my nails, but that’s what I found myself doing 😀

And sometime this week I’ll pick another of my chickens and get more inspiration from them! 🙂

A-England Dragon was one of the polishes I purchased through Ninja Polish, and Cover Band Sticks and Stones was the other!

Now, I’m a realistic sort of person. There is a large amount of evidence out there to suggest I will never be able to get Lynderella’s Connect The Dots, and… there are very similar polishes. I saw a comparison swatch with this, Lynderella’s, and another, and I preferred Sticks and Stones. So I bought it! And I’m happy I did. (I’ll track down that swatch when my computer is feeling better, and post the link). Edit: Found that site! Click here to go have a look, My Lucid Bubble compares Connect the Dots, Sticks and Stones, and Putting on the Ritzzzz 😉

I knew I wanted to layer it over red first, for the power colour combo effect.

So here is L.A. Colors Cranberry Red, a creme jelly in the best shade of red for me ever. LOVE. Two coats and top coat.

Then with one coat of Sticks and Stones, plus another top coat. Like Connect The Dots, this polish is a clear base with small amount of sparkly glitter, but large amounts of bar, small square, and larger hexagon non-glitter in black and white.

You see the random effect? Some have not much dots, some have heaps – LOVE that look.

And another photo – these were natural light, overcast but not raining. This polish did require a little bit of poking with the brush to arrange the glitter, but very little.

And this is under the kitchen light

And a whole-hand shot. Yes, at a distance you can totally see the graffitt effect. I almost walked into a wall because I was looking at my hands, and not where I was going.

Yay, what a cool polish! The one thing I love about this and Darling Diva Polish’s Dreamy is how far they can extend the polishes you already have. They encourage you to wear what you have an love, rather than just buying another polish to then feel guilty about not having enough fingers to wear… so, highly recommend these top coat effects polishes, just for that.

Here’s a bit of fun I had with my nails the other night – I had my toes painted to match (but I’d added the holographic ‘E’ top coat to my pedi.

I can see a rainbow...

This was two coats of everything, except the red – because after I had done two coat of the red I realised that was a cream, while the rest were shimmers – which sent my OCD into overdrive so I threw a shimmer red over the top.

Trying to get my thumb into the photo - it was really hard for me to try and hold my hand like this!

All had a quick dry top coat,and all dried quickly except for the Anna Sui yellow, which takes about 4 years to dry. You’ve been warned.. sure, your toeses will smell like roses, but.. WILL NOT DRY FOR FOUR YEARS.